1. David D Nowell PhD
www.DrNowell.com
STRATEGIC BEHAVIORAL INQUIRY
How Exactly Did You Do That?
5/9/13 MetroWest CHADD
monthly meeting

2. David D Nowell PhD
DavidNowell
DavidNowellSeminars

3. 5 minute overview

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© 2011 David D. Nowell, Ph.D. All rights
reserved.
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6. …and How Exactly
Did You Do That?

7. …and How Exactly
Did You Do That?

8. • What bad habit persists? And How Exactly Do
You Do That?

9. Assumptions of SBI
• Everybody’s doing the best they can
• Behavior is not incomprehensible or random
• Behavior follows patterns which reveal
themselves to the curious observer free of
prejudice or blame or theory

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© 2011 David D. Nowell, Ph.D. All rights
reserved.
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© 2011 David D. Nowell, Ph.D. All rights
reserved.
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15. Objectives of SBI
• Specific behavioral strategy
• What was the feeling-goal?
• Motivational level on a scale from 1-10

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© 2011 David D. Nowell, Ph.D. All rights
reserved.
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© 2011 David D. Nowell, Ph.D. All rights
reserved.
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21. Benefits of SBI
• Affirms the value of clients’ unique internal
experience
• Emphasizes the culture of self-regulation
• Encourages metacognition

22. How to do SBI
“How exactly did you do that?”

23. How exactly did you do that?
• How (a technology)
• Exactly (a precise “recipe,” a sequence of
actions and thoughts and images)
• Did (post-mortem)
• You (accountability, reality-based)
• Do (behavioral, practical)
• That (situation-specific)
• ? (open, genuinely curious inquiry)

24. ADHD and Insight

25. Fall in Love with the Truth
• Self-monitor and collect data:
– How long does your morning routine
take, exactly?
– How much time – exactly – do you need to
complete expense forms?
– How, exactly, do you follow through on
commitments to others and not to yourself?

26. Yoga / read
Staff meeting
Planning
session
Phone calls
billing
Learn from your To-Do list

27. Learn from your To-Do list
• Which things are not getting completed?
• How – exactly – are these not getting
completed? How do you do that?

28. Clinical Application
• Who in your clinic or classroom is
demonstrating remarkable “resilience” –
persistence despite significant obstacles? And
how, exactly, does he/she do that?
• What recurring behavioral problem is showing
up in your clinic or classroom?
• Note: we aren’t asking “why did you do that,”
but rather “how exactly did you do that.”

29. Living in The Gap
• Compassion
• Self-compassion